Growing Deeper

Are you an old Christian or a mature Christian?An Old Christian has not dealt with their worldly nature – so grumbles, criticises, objectsPaul in writing to the Corinthians 1 Cor 3:1-3 had a church like this.Babies are cute when small but if they continue to act like babies when they are old it is not so cute!

What are the reasons we don’t mature?

Because we don’t know we are free

Maturing takes a lifetime but starts when you realise you have all you need to grow

Adrian from Hospice – desperately wants to understand – to become mature

Freedom is in Christs victory over sin and the authority that is ours to come against any deception

Not taking personal responsibility

No one else can repent for you

Today no one is responsible for their own shortcomings!

Yet you have to admit you’re wrong and repent

There is no one but Christ you can forgive you totally

No one can submit you to Christ

We must chose for ourselves to take God at his word

Knowing the basic truths

Hebrews 5:12-14 – similar to Corinth

We are saints through Jesus Christ

We are completely righteous

Do you still believe you have to ‘do a good job’ to convince Him?

Faulty thinking

We still possess capacity to make mistakes and sin

But we have the weapons to deal with this

Our basic weapon is the truth that we have significance, security and acceptance already

That we have a Father in heaven who loves us no matter what

It takes 6 weeks to break a bad habit – why do you think lent is six weeks?

Not training ourselves to distinguish Good from Evil

Knowing when something is wrong

Like bank tellers are trained to spot forgeries

How we grow

Uncovering Satan’s lies – that we have not changed and are not really Christians

Things that have been said about you in the past are lies

Things we have done wrong, sometimes very wrong in the past

It’s a lie to believe they still prevent us maturing

We may be frightened of man or of Satan but 1 John 4:4

Dealing with lies

Where did they come from?

Should I forgive someone?

We may be told we are stuck in habitual sin – drinking, gambling, pursuit of money, porn

Christ says we are free – though we may need to take hold of the weapons we have and do battle for 6 weeks!

Swinging a great ball at an indestructible wall – you give up on the 39th swing, but the 40th would have done the damage

Long term view

Maturing takes a life time – growing old simply happens

Find a prayer friend someone you can confide in, if you continue to struggle

If something in your past was traumatic – you may need someone to confide in and pray with you